Sri Lanka Music: Neela Wickramasinghe Mp3

A song is a serious thing. This may sound a little bit strange, since most of us consider 'singing' to be an expression of lightheartedness. We sing when a joyous mood is upon us.

The song is, very often, the sound of inner rapture. People sing either individually or in groups. Whatever may be the language of the song, it can move us across cultures and national boundaries. The song leaps epochs, eras and ages and is always current and contemporary. A great song can have layers upon layers of meaning. A song can endlessly evoke the atmosphere and the feeling, of a moment that is long past. We re-live events and sentiments of previous times, with the lyrical memory of a song, heard long ago. The rhythms and the echoes of songs, tintinabulate from heart to heart, for those vast masses, who cannot adequately articulate their states of emotion, the song is the proxy voice.

The well-sung lyric, reaches people of all ages. Children, young woman, adults and those men and woman, for whom the deepening shadows of sunset days, are beginning to be real.

Even animals tend to the sounds songs that seem to lull and soothen them. There is hardly a soul that does not retain within it, a fleeting snatch or a bar some song, that had strayed into it under some circumstances

Given all this, a song is indeed a serious thing.

For most of us, men and woman represent songs whose lilting, vibrating and vaulting vocalizations have won us - heart and mind. We have our favorites songs and equally favorites singers.

Passing years may bring into prominence, some singers and certain lyrics. But, there are some, who are not at all affected by transience and ephemerality. They continue amidst all changes, through some power they possess to defy the passage of time.

Neela Wickramasinghe and her songs, belong in the category of those phenomena, that are least touched by the effects of passing years. Her lyrical voice has remained evergreen through some strange magic as it were, over all those years. Her vocalizations have retained their freshness of appeal. To me she seems the personification of the dulcet tones of a mandolin frail, thin but pleasant. She manager to display a perpetual smile. And, it is crystal clear, that her smile is not a P.R.technique. it stems from the depth of her heart- from the inner recesses of her soul. It is a genuine expression of her untrammeled mind.

She reflects simplicity of being.

She excludes a spirit of trusting, believing and almost child-like candour. Her character seems lit up from within. This is perhaps the result of her acceptance of her physical limitation, without any anger resentment or harshness towards the outside world.

All there personality traits are amply reflected in her songs. If you listen to her vaocalisations, somewhat keenly, you will not fail to discover a smoky edge in her voice.

This discernible secondary trill in her songs, given her style of singing, its special quality - its individualistic signature. Any other person too could give voice to the words of a lyric.

But, the fascinating throb, Neela can introduce to her vocalization, is just her own. This special vocal touch, imparts to her songs, their deep emotional flavors, once heard, her songs begin to grow within the listener, to surface into memory from time to time

On an extremely personal note, I cannot help but record here, the indelible impression she left upon me when she appeared in a hoarding and a poster, produced by UNICEF, Sri Lanka. This evoked in me a vast sense of pity. It awoke the humanity in side me. Along with all those, it stirred within me an admiration for singer Neela Wickramasinghe.

As an artist and especially as a singer, she has invariably to be exceptionally sensitive. Each moment, she is deeply conscious of her own physical handicap. She dose her singing though all these limiting and curbing factors.

Over the years, her voice has gained a new depth. I can describe this only as a kind of sobriety. This has given her songs a semblance of maturity. It is as if she sings with a philosophic objectivity a stance of detachment.

Neela has never attempted to project a 'pop' image of herself. She is fully aware that those who esteem her style of singing and being will always be with her. Being cloyingly popular has never been part of her scheme of things.

But, those who relish her singing qualities have a duty and responsibility to felicitate her for her lyrical contribution.

We felicitate he not only for what she has already achieved

She has of course sung a considerable number of songs, which add upto a solid body of contribution. But, my view is, she has many an unsung song in her throat. May she find the time to elevate our sense of high appreciation, by vocalizing those innumerable unsung songs.

Edwin Ariyadasa

Labels

Classic Music SL's Fan Box

Neela Wickramasinghe Mp3

>> Thursday, July 16, 2009

0 comments: